The Power of Determination By John M. Rowley

The Power of Determination
By John M. Rowley

”We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.” --Jesse Owens

As a boy, I started reading stories that would ignite my spirit and spur me on. Later in life I would turn to my Zig Ziglar tapes and CD’s to do the same for me in my career. One of these stories from my childhood stands out in my mind some 35 years later as an example of what we can achieve if we don’t give up.

A little six year old boy had the job of heating his tiny country schoolhouse with his older brother. They came in early so the building was warm when everyone arrived. One February morning in 1916, the stove exploded, killing the older brother and leaving the little boy with incredible burns brutalizing the lower half of his body.

From his hospital bed the painfully burned, semi-conscious little boy faintly heard the doctor telling his mother that her son would surely die - which was for the best because the poor little boy would surely be a cripple. But this boy wasn’t quitting! He made up his mind then and there that he would survive.

Every day his mother would massage his little lifeless legs, but there was no feeling, no control, nothing. Yet the determination that he would walk was as strong as ever. One sunny day his mother wheeled him out into the yard to get some fresh air. Instead of sitting there, he threw himself from the chair, pulled himself across the grass and raised himself up on the picket fence. He then proceeded to drag himself along the fence, determined that he would walk again. He did this every day until he wore a path along the fence.

Through his daily massages, his iron persistence and his resolute determination, he did develop the ability to stand up, then to walk with assistance, then to walk by himself - and then - to run. He began to walk to school and then to run to school.

And run he did. This little boy that was told he would never walk again, made the track team in college and then one day in Madison Square Garden, this young man who was not expected to survive, who would absolutely never walk, who could never ever dream of running - this determined young man, Glenn Cunningham, ran the world's fastest mile!

Is this story about you? Somehow the odds have been stacked against you and you have more to overcome than you ever thought? Well, take a lesson from Glenn Cunningham, massage your obstacles and then stand up and get going! If you can’t walk…then run! Set your mind to something and put all your energy into it and the world will not deny you! In fact, the world will somehow help!

John M. Rowley is the pioneer in combining peak performance principles with physical and spiritual disciplines for complete and lasting success. He is the author of Climb Your Ladder of Success: Without Running Out of Gas. For more information about John, visit his website at www.johnmrowley.com.